In this case, it turns out that a technician mistakenly inserted into a NORAD computer a training tape that simulated a large Soviet attack on the United States. Because of the design of the warning system, that information was sent out widely through the U.S. nuclear command network.

Fortunately, tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union were low at the time, so there was some skepticism about the warning from the beginning. Moreover, communication between the warning center and U.S. radar sites indicated that the radars were not seeing a missile attack. Within months, however, tensions spiked when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and continued to rise through the first Reagan term. And had communication systems been down or had the radars detected unrelated missile launches, the situation would have been much more serious. As noted in previous posts, unexpected coincidences happen, and spread confusion.

I remember, at the time, there was news report related to this incident noting an alert was also sent to broadcasting services (TV, Radio, etc.) instructing them to go to ready status and prepare to broadcast emergency instructions; the incident happened when normal, routine test alerts were expected and, as a result, only a few stations actually responded and a few more actually attempted to verify the legitimacy of the alert; all the other stations just carried on as usual...